According to The Telegraph, senior Whitehall officials are secretly concerned about the two-year limit – particularly if we end up with a so-called ‘hard Brexit’.

This will likely not be taken well by Brexiters such as Jacob Rees-Mogg, who has already complained that Britain could end up with ‘Brino’ – Brexit In Name Only.

Rees-Mogg, chairman of the influential European Research Group of backbench Tory Eurosceptics, also told the PM that ‘the leader is important, the party is more important’.

Jacob Rees-Mogg said he didn’t want ‘brino’ (Picture: PA)

‘The less of Brexit you get, the more likely you are to get Jeremy Corbyn,’ he told the Telegraph. ‘If you get a good, clean Brexit and the advantages from it then the chances of getting Jeremy Corbyn are much diminished.

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‘If everything is delayed for two years and then there’s high alignment, you will find that by 2022 no one will have noticed any difference from having left.

‘Then what will be the point of voting for a party that’s implemented it. I’m against “Brino”.’

He said that a transition period was necessary so that businesses had time to adjust to the new rules that would come into force after Brexit.

Clark told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘I think it’s very important that as we leave the EU – which is absolutely, unambiguously the case that we are – that businesses have been very clear all across the country, large businesses and small businesses as well, that we need to take the time to be able to adjust to the new regime.

‘I talk to businesses day in, day out, and they are unanimous in wanting to have that period.’